Source: Murphy will sign two-year deal with Indians

He’s not the cleanup hitter the Indians’ offense needs most, but David Murphy should fit comfortably into the No. 6 or 7 spot in the Indians’ lineup, and what makes him even more attractive to the Indians is this:
He wears out Detroit Tigers pitching.
For an Indians team that finished just one game behind Detroit in the Central Division this year, despite being out-scored 120-70 in losing 15 of their 19 games vs. the Tigers, that counts for a lot.
Pending his passing a physical, Murphy, according to numerous reports, will sign a two-year $12 million deal with the Indians. The 32-year-old left-handed hitting free agent outfielder had the worst year of his career for Texas this year, but here are the numbers that probably excite the Indians the most:
Murphy’s career batting average vs. Tigers starting pitchers: Rick Porcello .529, Doug Fister .391, Justin Verlander .320, Max Scherzer .273.
For his career against Detroit, Murphy has hit .305 with a .369 on base percentage and .553 slugging, with 9 home runs and 29 RBI in 141 at bats.
For the Rangers this year Murphy’s salary was $5.7 million and he hit just .220 with 13 home runs and 45 RBI. His OPS (on base plus slugging percentage) of .656 was down over 200 points from the year before. In 2012, Murphy hit .304 with 15 home runs, 61 RBI and a .859 OPS.
At least by signing Murphy Indians pitchers would no longer have to face him. He’s a .343 career hitter vs. Cleveland and his career batting average at Progressive Field is .365.
With the Indians, Murphy is seen as a platoon partner with right-handed hitting Ryan Raburn and/or Drew Stubbs in right field. In their careers vs. right-handed pitchers, Raburn has a .255 batting average and .714 OPS, Stubbs is at .226 and .652, while Murphy is at .280 and .816.
In all likelihood it will be a Murphy/Raburn platoon in right field, and for the sake of discussion, even with Murphy coming off the worst year of his career, he and Raburn in 2013 combined to hit 29 home runs with 100 RBI. The Indians, obviously, would gladly take that from their right fielders in 2014.
Murphy has played mostly left field in his career, but he does have experience playing right field, and in 568 at bats as a right fielder, which is the equivalent of one full season, he has hit .317 with 18 home runs and 93 RBI.
Murphy is a former first round pick by the Red Sox who selected him with the 17th overall pick in the 2003 June Draft, one pick before the Indians took outfielder Brad Snyder.
In 2007 Murphy was traded by Boston to Texas as part of the deal that sent reliever Eric Gagne from the Rangers to the Red Sox.
In a five-year span from 2008 to 2012, Murphy hit .283 and averaged 14 home runs and 61 RBI in about 400 at bats per season. He’s also a contact hitter who doesn’t strike out much — an average of just 66 in each of the last four years — which also makes him a good fit in an Indians lineup loaded with free swingers.
The addition of Murphy could make Stubbs’ spot on the roster precarious. Although his combination of speed, power and defense would make him an excellent fourth outfielder, Stubbs is eligible for salary arbitration and after making $2.825 million last year, he could be due for another significant boost in 2014. If the Indians feel the money for that raise could be better spent elsewhere they could explore trade possibilities for Stubbs, or even non-tendering him.
New guy
The Indians Wednesday hired Matt Quatraro as their assistant hitting coach. Quatraro, who will assist hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo, has spent all of his 19-year career in the Tampa Bay organization. For the last four years the 40-year-old Quatraro has been the Rays’ minor league hitting coordinator.